The Low End Theory

 

At the beginning of the 90's, more and more new sounds came over from the other side of the Atlantic. Bands like Beastie Boys, De La Soul or Jungle Brothers used to sample fragments of songs and included them into their hip hop sound. It seemed like any other music is gone and this kind of sound will rule the future. Glad that it didn't happened in this way but this genre developed well and still got it's corner in music. For me New York's A Tribe Called Quest were those who made an outstanding album with The Low End Theory back in 1991. Their trademarks are a massive bass and a laid-back jazzy atmosphere with steady grooves. Their masterpiece is now re-released and still worth to be listened from time to time.

A Tribe Called Quest - Excursion

A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhime

A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario

The German Correspondent Returns

 

At the beginning of the 1980s, our local pub put out a call for tenders looking for footballers who would like to play for the pub in amateur tournaments. Me and a few friends signed up and played for the next few years. Many of us had played for our home club as youth players up until last year, but never made it into the first team. Despite this, we made a very good name for ourselves in many tournaments and often beat even better teams. Since we finished our active careers, we've been meeting up every month for a few beers and talking about this and that. Last time we asked ourselves which German band has the worst band name. The first band that came to mind was a band from Cologne called the Bar Sluts but finally we agreed that The Dead Crack Whores In The Trunk were the one. It is a band from Berlin playing pop-punk/ElectroClash. One of my mates ripped their first record and sent it to us to make ourself an opion about their music. After all I have to say that there is  only one song that should be remembered. Ich Und Mein Pony is a pop-punk song and a video inspired by the Beastie Boys. Not a great song in musical history but a forgotten gem in German grlll-riot.

 

 

It wasn't intended to make a little series after I released a post when Trugoy The Dove passed away too soon. But after this news I turned the last days into hip hop of the late 80's. Another band that made groundbreaking music were the Beastie Boys. If their first album Licensed To Ill was just a party album when they started to experiment with samples they learned quickly to do it in a glorious way. Paul's Boutique was an aural experience for me and showed how to include old music of every kind of genre into a very new sound. And finally the video clip of Sabotage is still one of the best from this era.

UDS

 

After yesterday's post I listened to some more records from that time and rediscovered a band I didn't listen for ages. Urban Dance Squad were a band formed in Utrecht during a jam-session on a festival in the Netherlands in the late 80's. They released their first album Mental For The Floss in 1989 and grabbed me with their unique mix of various genres. Urban Dance Squad's music encompassed funk, soul, heavy metal, hip hop, reggae, jazz and ska. They were close to the level the Beastie Boys or Red Hot Chili Peppers had in the United States but sadly didn't got the critical acclaim they should have. Listening to them after decades I have to admit that they did some very good songs and were ahead of their time.

Urban Dance Squad - Deeper Shade Of Soul

Urban Dance Squad - No Kids (Acoustic Version)

Songs About New York

 

I don't think there is a city in this world that has been sung as often as New York. That's what I thought a few days ago when I listened to Simon and Garfunkel's The Only Living Boy In New York City and thought this could be an idea for a new post. So I picked out a few songs that were different to the usual songs from The Pogues, Sting or Pet Shop Boys. Absolutely and eclectic and incompletely list based on my choice.

Sabotage

 

Regular readers will know that when I switch on the radio I usually listen to Austria's station FM4. This station features new music with a massive focus on local artists. During the last years I discovered many new bands when they was introduced to the audience. One of those were Cari Cari an Austrian indie-rock band formed with the claim to get their music into a Tarantino film. And their sound would fit well to it. I saw them live a few years ago (in those days when it was possible) and overwhelmed of their presence on stage. Last week the station celebrated their 26th anniversary and many bands made some live home sessions for them. They started with Cari Cari and they covered the first song ever played on the station - Sabotage by the fantastic Beastie Boys following by other songs by them and one more cover by Asap Rock. You can find this session for a limited time here.

Live Music On German TV

There were artists to any time that tried to do things no one did before. I could name many in music and it would be an almost endless list. Most of them have their reputation in music history but I will feature today one of the forgotten ones. The Monks were a band formed in Gelnhausen, close to Frankfurt, by five GI's in 1964 as the 5 Torquays as a beat-band playing in their barracks for fun. As they went for professionals they changed their style immense. Instead of beat they worked on a new sound and included sound experiments and psychedelic to their music. The songs often had not a real melody, the beat was heavy and often repetitive. A band that was truthfully ahead of their times. Today they are valid among musicians as a pioneer of the punk and influenced artists like The Beastie Boys, Dead Kennedys, The White Stripes or The Fall. This footage is from 1966 when they promoted their first album in the monthly music show Beat Club.

Monday's Long Song

Back on the blog after a longer period of relaxing and recovering to continue (not only) the series of a long song on Monday. Today's song is from Beastie Boy's second and masterpiece album Paul's Boutique. It is a landmark in hip-hop. After the party of their first album finished, where they combined classic rock with hip-hop the Beastie Boys grew up to real artists. They understood what hip-hop stands for and they detected sampling as a way to create sounds/songs. Not many albums from this genre were played by white guys that stood the times (another was the first album by House of pain that showed the self-confidence of white rappers). This songs shows the range hip-hop can stand for.

Beastie Boys - B-Boy Bouillabaisse

Ring My Doorstep

You might know my affection to the new Austrian music scene. Most of the artists from there that appeared at this place were based in electronic music. So it is seldom enough to show you that there is still an other side of music over there. The Crispies are a Vienna based band and they celebrate the transitoriness in typical rock'n'roll manner: fuzz, fooks, reverb, youthful hedonism, sex. They take  apart the epochs of the rock history, Grunge, punk, Psychedelic rock and turn by the mincer and composes them in quite an own style again. This is sometimes propelling loudly and forwards, is sometimes hypnotic and is breaking also the banks every now and then. It seems that they celebrate the Beastie Boys in this song.

Licensed To Ill

It is 30 years ago that Beastie Boys climbed to number one with their first album. Originally a hardcore punk band they demonstrated the genre of hip hop and rap rock on this album. It was a sound I've never heard before. And it was a sound a lot of people could agree with. Suddenly a few opened their ears on a new kind of music and that's one of the reasons why they have they their place in history. Sadly not everyone followed their next recordings that are better in my opinion but less successful. Sadly Adam Yauch passed away too soon.

I don't know on which album this was but I like their version of a late 60's classic.

Beastie Boys - Light my fire

And in addition to the first song something real different by Stiff Little Fingers:

Why Do I Lie

Luscious Jackson was an American indie-rock band based in NYC. They were close to other new acts in the 90s like Beastie Boys or Cypress Hill. I loved their first EP In search of Manny with their female harmonies. Their following records were good as well. It is a disgrace that this group has never had the success which it would have earned. But anyway it's worth to remember them with a soft ballad from their third record.

Luscious Jackson - Why Do I Lie